Recently, my Paypal withdrawal limit is increased from a daily limit of USD 500 to USD 2500. Here’s how I found out.

Before this, Paypal user in Malaysia can only withdraw money to US bank account. Of course, this was too troublesome for most user. At that time, I would transfer my Paypal balance to my Singaporean friend. He would then transfer to his Singapore bank account and pass it to me in cash. I would have to convert the Singapore dollar to Malaysian Ringgit again.

This involved two fees. Firstly, Paypal would convert US dollar into Singapore dollar at 2.2% lower than market rate. Secondly, I had to bear currency exchange cost to convert Singapore dollar to Malaysian Ringgit.

Later, Paypal user in Malaysia are allowed to withdraw to credit or debit card bearing VISA logo. This is of course a great news to us. So I immediately applied for a Maybank debit card. Unfortunately, I couldn’t withdraw Paypal balance to Maybank debit card when I tried. Later I found out Maybank debit card currently doesn’t accept online transaction.

Therefore, I withdraw to my Maybank Visa credit card instead. Unfortunately (again!), the withdrawal limit was only USD 500 per day with a service fee of USD 5 per transaction. At USD 500 withdrawal, the service fee will be 1%. This is also quite high, but much lower than withdrawal to Singapore bank.

I have withdrawn Paypal balance this way for several times without any problem. I took about 3 to 5 days for the amount to clear. I can easily check it online using Maybank2u.com service. As the USD-RM rate goes up and down, I will get different amount for each withdrawal. Sometimes, I would wait for the exchange rate to go up in my favor before making the withdrawal. But when the rate goes down, I would withdraw it quickly.

Paypal statement showing withdrawal to Malaysia credit card

Maybank statement showing Paypal withdrawal

(Note: The amount above is not pure profit.  A big chunk pays for the cost of goods.)

I was used to this USD 500 limit I would key in USD 500 everytime I make the Paypal withdrawal. Entering anything more than UDS 500 would result in error. But on one particular day, I tried to enter about USD 700 out of curiousity. To my surprise, I was allowed to proceed to the next step.

Hmmm… has Paypal lift the USD 500 limit?

So I cancelled that transaction and waited for my Paypal balance to reach USD 1000. Then I tried to withdraw about USD 1000+. I could proceed to the next step too. This is great! I can finally withdraw more than USD 500 at one time. This greatly reduce the withdrawal service charge. At USD 1000 withdrawal, the USD 5 fee is only 0.5% of the total amount. At USD 1500 withdrawal, the fee is only 0.33%.

Finally, I ended up withdrawing USD 1800 as shown below.

New Paypal withdrawal limit for Malaysia

(Note: The ‘Name on Card’ shows my company name instead of my name. I was worried of this but there is no problem.) 

The transaction was successful. And it reminded me of the elephant story as follows.

“At a circus, trainer would tie baby elephant’s leg with a big metal chain. As a wild animal, baby elephant would kick and drag her leg with all its energy to get free. But each trying only wounded her leg badly. And with each try, the baby elephant used less and less energy. Finally she gave up trying. After the elephant grew up, the trainer only tied her leg with a small rope. The adult elephant could now easily break free with a gentle kick. However, she gave up long time ago because she had failed many times before. So what restict the elephant’s freedom? The tiny rope tied to her leg or the big metal chain in her mind?”

For my case, I was so used to withdrawing USD 500 that I didn’t realize the limit was increased until I tried entering a bigger amount. However, I received an email from Paypal several days later mentioning about my increased withdrawal limit. Here’s the extract of that email:

Dear Pang Chow Ping,

As a valued seller, we are contacting you about a recent improvement
that we made to your PayPal account.  Your withdrawal limit to your
Visa® debit/credit card has been increased from US$500 to US$2,500 (or
equivalent) - giving you faster access to your funds1.

We hope that you’ll enjoy this enhancement!  Thank you for continued
business!

Sincerely,
The PayPal Team

1.      The new limit is per withdrawal to your Visa® debit/credit card.
Additionally, your account was selected for this enhancement based on
your recent transaction and account history with PayPal and is subject
to periodic review.

At first, I thought every Paypal user in Malaysia get this withdrawal limit increase. But with this email from Paypal, I realized only certain seller are entitled for this withdrawl limit increase. Maybe my transaction amount meets their minimum requirement. However, the foot note says it is subjected to periodic review. Anyway, I certainly welcomed this improvement as I can reduce my transaction cost

Jack creates “something” that earns him 10 cents everyday. It may take 1 to 3 hours to create it. But when it’s completed, Jack gets 10 cents the next day, another 10 cents the day after, and so on. This 1 to 3 hour work keeps earning Jack 10 cents everyday, forever. So Jack creates one of this each day. After 30 days, Jack has 30 of these “something” that earn him $3 per day.

On the other hand, Jim finds a job with $1000 monthly salary. He works 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. At the end of the month, Jim receives his $1000 salary. The next month, Jim has to work again to get another $1000.

How will both Jim and Jack fare financially? Let’s do the math…

At the end of first month, Jim collects his $1000 salary. However, Jack only collects a total of $49.60. Poor Jack. He gets so little for the first month. Jack surely admires Jim’s $1000 salary. Now, if Jack stops creating that “something” that earns him 10 cents daily, he can only get $46.50 for the second month. So Jack continues to create one each day.

Now let’s see their monthly progress…

At the end of that year, Jim gets a total of $12000 while Jack gets a total of $6679.50. Note that for the last month, Jack gets $1085.00 which is higher than Jim’s monthly salary of $1000. That means, if Jack stops working, he still gets more money than Jim. Jack can relax at home while Jim still has to work 8 hours a day. Now, Jim really has to admire Jack for not having to work.

What if Jack still continues to create the “something” that makes him10 cents a day? Here is his yearly progress.

At the end of second year, Jack’s annual income exceeds Jim’s annual income. And after 10 years, Jack’s total earning is more than 5 times of Jim’s total earning. And the main point is, Jack can stop working anytime and still enjoys higher earning than Jim.

Now you may ask,

“Is this possible?”

Definitely!

So what is the “something” Jack does everyday to earn his daily 10 cents? It is creating website content and make money with Google Adsense advertisement. By just creating one page a day, Jack gradually build up his website  to earn lots of money in the long run.

The projected number is in theory only. It’s not that you will get 10 cents tomorrow for the web page you create today. There will be ups and downs in your earning. But on average, you will see that pattern emerging. I’m also stating a very conservative number. A lot of web page is earning more than 10 cents a day on average.

Oppsss… I forgot to let you know the number’s currency is in Malaysian Ringgit (RM). So RM 0.10 a day is less than 3 cents USD a day. It’s not very hard to get this number. When your website gets more traffic, this average amount will shoot up beyond your expectation.

So which plan do you want to follow?

The good news is, you can have both! Continue doing your job while building your website in your free time. It’s best if you can create one page everyday. The problem is…

• How long can you continue creating one web page per day?
• How long can you keep going when you don’t see good income in the beginning?
• Are you willing to learn how to build good website or blog?

As usual, you reap what you sow.

I love email from Paypal titled "Notification of payment received"

These 3 sales are:

1. Two boxes of Longheh Lingzhi to USA
2. Six boxes of Longheh Lingzhi to USA
3. Six boxes of Longheh Lingzhi to Australia

Total sales amount is USD 742.00 Isn’t it great to have this sales amount everyday? Just a few days ago, I added a few graphics on the product page. So I wonder whether these graphics let visitor understand more about our Lingzhi and improved conversion.

If you want to order some Lingzhi or Ganoderma Reishi herb for your health, you’re most welcomed! 

Click here for more information on Longheh Lingzhi

Immediately, I prepared all the shipping documents and have it picked up by Fedex this afternoon. I only send out two packages today. One to USA and one to Australia. The other package to USA will be sent out on Monday to avoid possible clearance delay at US custom. Just to play safe.

Waiting for Fedex pickup